?s for Charlie Brown

[Charlie Brown]

Draw and no relegation. I call that a win for me and, of course, for English football.

[Charlie Brown]

Apparently, they're only still in EPL because of a bad call the first game after the pandemic stoppage that resulted in them getting one extra, undeserved point. Perhaps that's the hand of god as seen in The Lovers.

[dodalisque]

Draw and no relegation. I call that a win for me and, of course, for English football.

Yep, you called it. Oh well, "into every life a little rain must fall". I don't know about "hand of God"; Villa are more a kind of "hand to mouth" outfit. Hopefully their only good player, Jack Grealish, will realise he's wasting his talents at a cheesy outfit like Villa and move to a decent team during the summer break. I'm sure I will only have to wait one season to see them relegated at this time next year. But the same fate could easily befall hapless Birmingham. They are awful and were very lucky to survive this year. It was perilously close for Villa today. Watford lost, which was predictable, but Bournemouth won away surprisingly at Everton. That would have been enough to have doomed Villa if West ham could only have scored one more goal at the end of the game. The games played in empty stadiums are very strange. Football is a religion in England but I can see interest in the game waning if the stadiums remain closed. The standard of play must be sadly in decline if Villa are still in the Premier League, but that might be sour grapes on my part.

[Charlie Brown]

I'm pleased that Tottenham snuck into the Europa League, which, if I'm being totally honest, I find to be a little more interesting than the Championship league. It's all the strange ass little Eastern European places I've never heard of.

[Rachelcat]

The outer two cards both have heavy duality implications and the moon does as well, with the two dogs.

when I saw this yesterday, I immediately thought a tie. Better get thee to a racetrack!

[kare]

Thank you all again for a delightful evening spent in this thread. Of course I only follow US teams lol. But when I lived in Milwaukee years ago there was a bar that opened at odd hours to show live games from England and Europe. You could bring your breakfast have a pint at 8 am or something like that. My husband and I were there one afternoon to watch a US men's qualifying game against Mexico. It was packed, beer flying through the air. Everyone uniformly in support of the US. Then as we were losing near the end, a man wearing a Mexico jersey wrapped in a Mexican flag and singing some victory song in Spanish ran in and danced around and it was a huge uproar, but I believe he stayed to share a beer.

[dodalisque]

Thank you all again for a delightful evening spent in this thread.

And I didn't even get around to mentioning the gypsy curse...I'll apologise immediately if someone is offended by the term gypsy. When I was growing up in Birmingham they were known as tinkers and were usually impoverished Irish people with their own nomadic culture clinging to the fringes of society. The arrival of their caravans in a neighbourhood would immediately result in a spike in violence and crime.

Anyway, back to soccer...When Birmingham City were looking for a site to build their new stadium in the early 20th century, the mayor of the city broke up a gypsy encampment to claim the land for development and the gypsy leader placed a 100 year curse on the team. The drafty barn of a stadium, which used to have a capacity of 80,000 when standing was allowed - it's all seats now - is still standing. Sure enough, they didn't win a thing for 100 years.

Periodically authorities on the occult were brought in to break long losing streaks or in preparation for a big game, but nothing seemed to work. I myself saw a game when our entire team painted the soles of their soccer boots bright red. We lost that game 0-4. I happened to be back in England (from Canada) visiting my parents on the very day that the 100 year curse was due to end. I went to the game and there were balloons and brass bands and priests and local celebrities on hand to bid farewell to the bad times in a grand ceremony of purification. This would be around 2005. That year we won promotion from the second division to the top league. But the season after that we came down again. Such is life as a Birmingham fan. Ups and downs, then down and down and down. We can't even blame the gypsy curse anymore.

On the bright side, at least I wasn't born an Aston Villa fan. Only the souls of the damned serving out several incarnations of karmic retribution end up as Aston Villa fans. Their gaudy stadium is just around the corner from ours. We even have to go school and work alongside some of their sort. Probably the main reason why I emigrated.

[Charlie Brown]

they were known as tinkers and were usually impoverished Irish people with their own nomadic culture clinging to the fringes of society. The arrival of their caravans in a neighbourhood would immediately result in a spike in violence and crime.

Do you know if these are the folks portrayed by Brad Pitt in Snatch?

[kare]

I think a lot of people aren't aware of the origin of the word "Gypsy," which is actually a racially derogatory term. In the early Middle Ages the Roma migrated from the Indian subcontinent into the Middle East and later parts of Europe. G*psy was a derogatory reference to Egyptian, and so they were misidentified and labeled derogatorily in such a way that has followed them for centuries. They were often enslaved, hunted, persecuted, subjected to genocide in Spain, tens of thousands killed by the Nazis, and placed in enforced sterilization programs in 20th century Europe, much as we Americans did to our Black community. Even the mention of the supposed uptick in crime and violence that was believed by communities to accompany their arrival sounds like it could have been copied right out of anti-Black rhetoric in the United States. I would venture to guess that any real uptick in violence was in part due to violence perpetrated against their community, since that is the documented historical experience of this group.

[dodalisque]

they were known as tinkers and were usually impoverished Irish people with their own nomadic culture clinging to the fringes of society. The arrival of their caravans in a neighbourhood would immediately result in a spike in violence and crime.

Do you know if these are the folks portrayed by Brad Pitt in Snatch?

Absolutely. I liked that mock-Irish gobbledy-gook language that Pitt invents for the film. Where did you find that Villa badge to use as your logo/avatar? I thought it had been publicly outlawed like the rebel flag in the US.

[dodalisque]

I think a lot of people aren't aware of the origin of the word "Gypsy," which is actually a racially derogatory term. In the early Middle Ages the Roma migrated from the Indian subcontinent into the Middle East and later parts of Europe. G*psy was a derogatory reference to Egyptian, and so they were misidentified and labeled derogatorily in such a way that has followed them for centuries. They were often enslaved, hunted, persecuted, subjected to genocide in Spain, tens of thousands killed by the Nazis, and placed in enforced sterilization programs in 20th century Europe, much as we Americans did to our Black community. Even the mention of the supposed uptick in crime and violence that was believed by communities to accompany their arrival sounds like it could have been copied right out of anti-Black rhetoric in the United States. I would venture to guess that any real uptick in violence was in part due to violence perpetrated against their community, since that is the documented historical experience of this group.

Yep, they have their own unique culture and so are feared and have been treated dreadfully.

[Charlie Brown]

Where did you find that Villa badge to use as your logo/avatar?

Oh, it was easy. I just typed the word "distinction" into google. Popped right up.

[kare]

they were known as tinkers and were usually impoverished Irish people with their own nomadic culture clinging to the fringes of society. The arrival of their caravans in a neighbourhood would immediately result in a spike in violence and crime.

Do you know if these are the folks portrayed by Brad Pitt in Snatch?

Brad Pitt played an Irish Traveller, a recognized Irish ethnic group that was displaced during the Cromwell era in the 17th century. He is speaking their Shelta language. They are sometimes misidentified as Roma. Super interesting group that I had never heard of until that movie. They have a US diaspora in Texas, Ohio and Georgia, and work primarily in very specific construction industries. Totally fascinating.

[dodalisque]

Where did you find that Villa badge to use as your logo/avatar?

Oh, it was easy. I just typed the word "distinction" into google. Popped right up.

I always think when I see that motto "Prepared" on their badge that they should be playing in mustard yellow shirts instead of claret and blue. And then their mascot could be a guy dressed up as a dancing tube steak.